Beautiful Lines: Depicting Voyages of Discovery, 850-1850

JF Ptak Science Books   Quick Post

 This small detail (measuring about 1/3" square) is from a fine, detailed, and oddly beautiful map (itself only about 12x9") which was published in the atlas volume¹ to accompany the best-selling encyclopedic presentation of the natural history knowledge of the world to that time, Baron Alexander von Humboldt's Kosmos, which was published over a period of several from 1845-1862.  

The map is titled Die Ozeanischen Entdeckungen und die  um die Kunde des erdballs verdienten  Forscher  und Reisenden vom Jahre 840-1850, and depicts voyages of discovery for a milennium, 850-1850. It is a terrifically-detailed map, even among highly-detailed maps. (This detail is taken froma 1x2" section seen here:)

 

And the full map:

Notes:

1.  The atlas was by T. Bromme, Atlas zu Alex. V. Humboldt's Kosmos in zweiundvierzig Tafeln mit erlauterndem Texte. Herausgegeben von Traugott Bromme. Stuttgart. Verlag von Krais & Hoffman. (with second title page) Atlas zur Physik der Welt in ... Bromme, 1851.